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Just wondering for those of you who prefer to fill with CA do you also fill the sides and sand back (leaving CA in pores only) prior to side bending. I'm about to start a BR guitar with very nice back/sides and know the BR has plenty of pores. It seems, if it will work safely, filling before bending would be much, much easier in the long run.

Thanks for any help guys.

Steve

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"We might not be big but we sure are slow"

I've not done it that way before.

I would think that the pores elongate and squish during the bending process somewhat so this might leave you with some of the pores still needing to be filled (outside bends ie: the bout's) and maybe some of the cured CA popping out (inside bend ie: waist).

I don't think it would hurt anything to give it a try though, let us know how it works out.

The one thing I do know is that those nasty CA fumes are released when the glue is heated, so, if you do decide to try this, make sure you wear a respirator and safety glasses and maybe a strategically placed fan to blow the fumes away from you.

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just my thoughts but ... if you honestly think you can build the rest of the guitar around pre-filled unbent sides without doing any side sanding and levelling, cleaning up some after binding and tail wedge ... I doubt it - which means as you sand and level the sides pre binding, do the clean up and level after binding, you will no doubt be opening up more pores to be filled - plus what are you binding with - wood ?? - thats more pores unless its maple or similar.

I cant see how its much faster than a couple coats of Zpoxy levelled out once the gutiar is built.

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Tony Karol
www.karol-guitars.com
"let my passion .. fulfill yours"

I'd also be worried about the fumes it'll generate when bending.

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Alain Moisan
Former full time builder of Acoustics, Classicals and Flamencos.
(Now building just for fun!)

I don't consider this pore filling but when I bend Ziricote I flood the sides with thin CA allow to cure Scrape back to flat and bend. the fumes are not as bad as you may think but i do wear my respirator during the bend. The fumes while an irritant are not toxic.

Now if the intention is to pre fill prior to bending I doubt this would be worth while. But to help prevent Ziricote fro having a running crack during bending I have good success.

Several years ago I bought a BRW set from Bryan Galloup while at his facility. This set had a lot of worm holes that worried me until Bryan showed me the trick he uses. He flooded the wood with CA and spread it around. After about 5 minutes, he ran it through his thickness sander which added dust to the worm holes and became solidified. He repeated this until all of the holes were filled. At the same time, the normal pores were filled as well. This wasn't sanded to final thickness but when I do prior to bending I suspect that new pores will be exposed. In that case, I'll use ZPoxy following assembly as I normally do.

I still haven't bent the sides and I don't expect fumes after the length of time, but when I do I plan to protect myself just in case.

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JJ
Napa, CA
http://www.DonohueGuitars.com